Connect your video player to your computer

It's easier than you might think to copy a collection of home movies from VHS tape onto your computer. You probably already have a video recorder and the computer. You will also need the video input device and maybe a SCART adapter and cables.

The video input device may already be fitted to your computer but if not adapters can be bought for as little as £30 on sites such as Amazon. Some setups may also require using a SCART adapter that cost around £10.

Fitting the USB adapter to the computer is simple. Find a spare USB socket and plug it in. Refer to the manual in case the software must be installed first. Ideally you should choose a USB socket with nothing plugged in to the adjacent slots.

There are several different connections on the adapter. The yellow and red sockets are for audio using phono or RCA phono connectors. The red socket carries the right audio and the white the left.

The yellow socket is for composite video. This black socket with four connectors (the rectangle is a guide to make sure the cable is sitted correctly) is called S-Video. This offers better quality than composite so use it if you can.

Now it's time to look at the video player. Don't be fooled if you see a yellow composite socket on the front of the player. This is normally used for recording onto the VCR so you will not see anything when you connect to it.

The sockets you want will be at the back. If you are very lucky there will be either a composite or S-Video socket but normally there will just be a couple of SCART sockets. Here is where the adapter comes in.

Make sure that it is set to the correct direction if there is a switch on it and then plug it into the socket. Now plug in the audio and video cables in both the adapter and the video input device, not forgetting power of course and press Play. You are now ready to start your video recording software in Windows.